buying a surround sound receiver and speakers?
 

Hi everyone. I just bought an Hdtv. I'm now looking to buy the sound system and I'm really a novice at this. My tv is in a 20 x 10 basement. My questions are:

how do you determine how powerful the receiver needs to be for such a room? how many watts? what does 'watts per channel' mean?

how do you align the speaker system with the power of the receiver. I assume you need speakers that at a minimum can handle the wattage pumped out by the receiver. I'm planning on the standard 4 speaker arrangement (2 in front at the sides of the tv, and 2 in the rear of the room).

what's a 'subwoofer'? do I need that as well?

sorry for the novice nature of the questions. thanks.

What is your budget? You should look for 5 speakers (the 4 you mentioned, plus a center speaker that handles dialogue). A subwoofer provides bass and that theather "oomph!"

As for wattage, it is better to have more power than less. You will damage a speaker much more quickly with an underpowered receiver than with an overpowered one. Many manufacturers tend to overrate their receivers (i.e. exaggerate the power output without technically lying), so don't pay too much attendtion to that. Tell us your budget and there are a lot of people here who will have some great ideas. Congrats on the new tv!

Depending on your budget if you are going to be able to assemble the pieces yourself, I would start by listening to speakers. Find out what you like, then find something to power them.